APR Presents

Invisible Made Visible

This week, the radio version of an episode we did live on stage and beamed to movie theaters all over the country. David Sedaris, Tig Notaro and Ryan Knighton perform stories. Plus the late David Rakoff, in his final performance on the show.

When Patents Attack:  Part 2

Two years ago, we did a program about a mysterious business in Texas that threatens companies with lawsuits for violating its patents. But the world of patent lawsuits is so secretive, there were basic questions we could not answer. Now we can. And we get a glimpse why people say our patent system may be discouraging, not encouraging, innovation.

Plan B

There's the thing you plan to do, and then there's the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon...switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.

The Cruelty of Children

Stories about kids being mean to each other.

Hit the Road

It's spring, so we're opening windows and going places. This week we have stories of people who, for reasons that they can't always explain, feel compelled to get out and go somewhere. Including the story of one man who decides to take a trip from Philadelphia to San Francisco — by foot.

Music Lessons

What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with help from KQED-FM, during the 1998 Public Radio Conference in San Francisco.

Picture Show

This week, Israeli soldiers take snapshots of Palestinian boys, one house at a time, in the middle of the night. This and other stories where getting the picture gives you the upper hand.

Play the Part

Stories of people who decide to flip their personalities and do the exact opposite of what they normally do. Pictured: Louis Ortiz, Obama impersonator. He is the subject of the documentary film The Audacity of Louis Ortiz.

Tribes

A Native American tribe is doing exactly the opposite of what you'd think they'd do: they're kicking people out of the tribe, huge numbers of them, including people whose ancestors without question were part of the tribe. And the story of a white guy who only wants to date Asian women, who then has to adjust to the reality of a real actual Asian woman in his life. The phrase "finding your tribe" is a total cliche — but one that does apply to certain situations.

Trends with Benefits

Something that took us by surprise. The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost a quarter of adults are on disability. Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt spent 6 months exploring the disability program, and emerges with a story of the U.S. economy quite different than the one we've been hearing.

Starting from Scratch

Stories of people starting over, sometimes because they want to, other times because they have to.

Reruns

Stories of people stuck in their own personal reruns—moments or episodes that they revisit over and over again.

No Coincidence, No Story!

We asked listeners to send us their craziest, most memorable coincidence stories, and we got so many fun and delightful ones we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a Greyhound station to keys that unlock strange lairs to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall, the world is a mysterious place.

Harper High School:  Part Two

We pick up where we left off last week in our second hour of stories from Harper High School in Chicago. We find out if a shooting in the neighborhood will derail the school's Homecoming game and dance. We hear the origin story of one of Harper's more prominent gangs. And we ask a group of teenage boys: where do you get your guns?

  Harper High School:  Part One

We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances. We found so many incredible and surprising stories, this show is a two-parter; Part One airs this week, Part Two is next week.